My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 99

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 99
* * *
That night, Rachel could not sleep.
‘That voice unmistakably belonged to the Duchess of Valentino.’
Kanna Adis. A noblewoman from the Inland.
She was strikingly beautiful—so much so that even her voice carried an oddly honeyed quality, and Rachel retained every detail of her with crystalline clarity.
Kanna possessed an allure that transcended mere seduction; there was something bewitching about her.
Like a thorned rose, like fruit laced with poison, a subtle enchantment emanated from her. Her skin was pale as porcelain, her hair black as ebony, her lips red as blood—all of it impossibly unreal.
Beautiful in a way that felt ominous.
‘Yet she too is suffering from madness.’
She had run through the rain wearing only her nightclothes.
Shamelessly, barefoot no less.
Her words suddenly echoed in my mind.
“Have you never considered that you might be harboring terribly wicked delusions?”
“Perhaps everything is merely your fantasy.”
“Or perhaps a misunderstanding.”
No.
No, no, no!
Rachel clenched her lips tightly.
How many Black Apostles had she burned at the stake?
Fifteen years in total. Exactly fifteen of them.
Sometimes they had been a ten-year-old boy, sometimes an elderly man, sometimes a young man, sometimes a middle-aged woman.
“Please, I am innocent!”
“Wahhhhh, Mother! Save me!”
“This is unjust! I am not a Black Apostle!”
“Miss.”
She gasped.
Rachel’s head snapped up. Lost in thought, she had not noticed someone approaching.
“Jerome.”
“Are you unwell?”
“I am fine.”
Rachel offered a weak smile, and Jerome sighed before draping a shawl around her shoulders.
“Why are you not resting?”
“But Orsini has not yet returned.”
“He must have gone to fetch that mad woman. They call themselves siblings, do they not?”
The servants’ accounts continued—Kanna had run through the estate like a woman possessed before fleeing outside.
“Jerome…”
“Yes?”
“The truth is, I cannot sleep because of something the Duchess said today.”
Rachel hesitated before speaking her true concern.
“Everything I’ve done until now….”
“….”
“It was all God’s will, wasn’t it?”
I could never have spoken these words to anyone but Jerome.
Not to my weak-willed father, the Lord of Paelon, nor to the High Priest with his lustful appetites.
Only to Jerome—my knight guardian who had protected me since childhood, like an older brother—could I confess such thoughts.
If, by some chance.
If Kanna Adis were right….
‘No.’
My breath caught in my throat at the mere thought.
“Do not be seduced by evil, Your Holiness.”
Jerome spoke with unwavering conviction.
“This peace has come because you purified the Black Apostles. Had you not, the islanders would have descended into madness and perished.”
“….”
“This island’s salvation is your doing, Saint.”
Saint. At that word, my breathing eased.
Yes, I was a saint.
The only one in this village untouched by madness. Did not everyone revere me as a saint?
“Kanna Adis—that woman possesses a wicked tongue. Could she not be a messenger of evil, sent to test your faith?”
“….”
Yes. That woman.
There was something ominous about her. Moreover, she had tested my faith with her insidious words that shook my very soul.
Was that her punishment? She suffered from madness.
“You’re right….”
I smiled.
“Sir Jerome speaks the truth. I was not wrong.”
I could not be wrong.
All those years, all those purifications, all those sacrifices.
All those deaths could not be a mistake on my part.
They could not have been.
* * *
Kalen Adis had finally returned to the Valentino Estate.
Venice. The nightmarish battle in that coastal city was over.
It had been the worst Black Mist he had ever faced—both in scale and in the sheer number of demons that poured forth.
‘I’m exhausted.’
Upon his arrival home after such a grueling journey, shocking news reached him.
“Kalen! Orsini!”
The moment he arrived, Chloe burst forth with tears streaming down her face, crying out.
“Orsini has vanished! Did you know?”
“Yes, I’m aware.”
“Kanna went there, but she won’t have any interest in Orsini. She won’t even pretend to search for him!”
“What do you mean by that?”
My ears perked up. Sister went to Paeylon Island?
While I was in Venice, I had heard the news.
Paeylon Island. Orsini, who departed for that place, had gone missing. The Knight Guards who accompanied him were annihilated, and contact was lost after a letter was left behind.
It was a shocking fact. However, I never doubted Orsini’s safety.
Therefore, the news that startled me now was something else entirely.
“Sister is on Paeylon Island?”
My heart sank.
There was no reason for Sister to go to that dangerous island.
“Why did Sister go there?”
As I learned the full story, my face turned cold and rigid. The Emperor had sent her.
‘What a despicably cunning scheme.’
I dismounted from my horse and, rather than rest from the journey, immediately turned the horse’s head around.
“Kalen! Where are you going, Kalen!”
I gave a brief answer to Mother calling out from behind.
“To Paeylon Island.”
* * *
The next day.
As dawn broke, I toured the village with Claude.
After examining each person afflicted with madness, I returned to the Valentino Estate around the time dusk began to fall.
“I heard you suffered from madness last night.”
It had been an exhausting day. Rachel found me when I was leisurely resting in my room.
“I was very worried when you disappeared like that last night. I can only hope nothing ill befell you.”
“….”
The rumors had spread everywhere, as expected.
However, I neither denied nor confirmed anything. At my silence, Rachel let out a sorrowful sigh.
“Duchess Adis, I must now deliver very grave news to you.”
“Grave news? What is it?”
“I am sensing a very intense magical aura from you, Duchess. I apologize.”
“….”
What? She’s sensing what from whom?
I was so flabbergasted that I couldn’t respond immediately. I barely restrained the urge to curse her to stop spouting nonsense.
I pressed my temples firmly.
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
“So what do you intend to do? Will you hang me upside down from a tree and burn me at the stake as well?”
I spoke with open contempt, but Rachel’s expression remained unchanged.
“Duchess of Valentino.”
“Speak.”
“Your Grace may find such methods barbaric. However, it is the only way to protect this island.”
Her voice was so serene that Rachel seemed to harbor not the slightest doubt about her approach.
“Because we have done so, the people of Paeylon Island have been able to live in peace.”
“….”
“I ask only that you respect it.”
I fell silent.
Respect. Yes, embracing diversity requires respect. But….
‘How am I supposed to respect a culture that burns innocent people at the stake as witches?’
I had countless things I wanted to say. Yet not a single word came easily to my lips.
Because of the eyes of Rachel before me.
Looking into those clear eyes, completely trapped within her own world, I could not fathom where to even begin.
“In a few days, I shall gather all those who have suffered from madness this year, discern the Black Apostles among them, and conduct the Purification Ritual.”
“And? Are you asking me to appear at this ceremony as well?”
At that, Rachel lowered her gaze, speaking as though issuing a challenge.
“Do you lack confidence?”
I mustered every ounce of patience I possessed and answered with courtesy.
“Is this truly a matter of confidence?”
“If Your Grace is truly not a Black Apostle, then stand boldly in that place. Then it will be resolved.”
“But whether I am a Black Apostle or not is determined solely by your subjective judgment. So what exactly am I supposed to trust in standing there?”
“Duchess, that is not my judgment. It is my ability.”
“….”
I had reached my limit. I could endure no more.
I finally spoke the words I had wanted to say all along.
“Rachel, listen to me carefully. You are deeply mistaken.”
I knew this woman harbored no malice. She was merely ignorant.
Yet that did not justify her atrocities.
“The reason the villagers suffer from madness is something else entirely. Contrary to what you believe, it has nothing to do with the Black Apostles.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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